What are solar panels and their types?

Solar energy is a great source of power for so many daily utility appliances. Whether you live in a far off place, or you wish to choose the alternative source of energy, solar power is a very reliable source of energy. Solar panels along with a battery are required for generating and storing the solar energy for supplying power to solar bulbs, water heaters, fans and other appliances made especially for working on solar power. With time and advancement in technology the performance of the solar panels has improved a lot and today, there are different types of solar panels available in the market. Broadly we classify them into Polycrystalline, Monocrystalline, Hybrid, Black Frames and Black Backed Panels.

In the monocrystalline panel, the solar cells are cut from the purely drawn crystalline silicon bars. The cells are laid in one direction in a way that they get maximum sunlight. Their color is so uniform and dark black and that they absorb too much of sunlight. Polycrystalline panels are made of silicon offcuts that are molded into blocks. Every cell in this panel is made of numerous small pieces of pure crystal. The efficiency of this panel is not as high as compared to other ones because all the crystals are not aligned perfectly and at the joints of the crystals the energy is lost. You can identify these panels with their color that looks bluish because of reflection of light by the crystals. Size and cost of these panels are quite similar to monocrystalline panels. Polycrystalline panels work better in areas where sun doesn’t shine brightly for a long time. These crystals that are not aligned uniformly can easily absorb light rays from different directions.

There is another type of solar panel known as hybrid panels. These panels have a layer of solar film behind the solar cells. Solar cells in this type of panel are monocrystalline. This amorphous layer gets more energy from the sunlight absorbed by the panel. These panels work wonderfully even in the areas where sunlight is not available in abundance. These can be good for the houses with smaller roof area but little expensive than other types of solar panels. Crystalline panels are better options especially in terms of the overall cost involved in generating the same amount of energy as by using hybrid panels.

Black Backed Panels with black frames can also be seen in the market. These look better than the traditional panels that are white in color however there is no additional benefit of having black frames. When Black frames absorb more light and make the solar cells hot whereas the performance of the solar cells is better when they remain cool. Before choosing a solar panel for your house, it is good to know about advantages, disadvantages and cost of all the variants.